Check the finished PDF before printing and cutting.
Preparing for printing
- 1. Open the finished PDF in a reader and check its page size. Compare it with “Sheet width [mm]” and “Sheet height [mm]” and the paper in your printer.
- 2. Check “Item width [mm]”, “Item height [mm]”, “Number of items along the X axis”, and “Number of items along the Y axis”. An item is one ticket, voucher, or other element on a sheet. Make sure the entire layout fits on the page.
- 3. In the print dialog, choose actual size or 100% scale. Disable options such as “Fit to page”: they may shrink or enlarge items and change their distances from the paper edges. If the printer clips your design, check the paper and printable area rather than shrinking the entire sheet.
- 4. Check the numbers: are they readable, do they fit in the intended space, and do they avoid overlapping the background content? Set their positions in “Number position on the X axis [mm]” and “Number position on the Y axis [mm]”.
- 5. Print one test sheet. Measure an item with a ruler and check number positions and crop mark visibility. To verify the order after cutting, also prepare a short batch of several sheets.
Cutting lines and margins
Crop marks show where to guide the blade. In the “Other” section of the form, you can choose:
- No crop marks
- Adds no marks. Use this option if your design already includes them or your print shop has specified a different cutting method.
- Cutting
- Adds short marks outside the item layout, along the extensions of their shared edges. These help cut the sheet along item boundaries.
- Trimming
- Adds marks indicating cuts 2 mm inwards from each item edge. After cutting, the item is 4 mm narrower and 4 mm shorter than the item dimensions in the form. Allow for this in your design and check a sample.
“Print frames” draws an outline around each item. A frame is a printed element of the PDF, so enable it deliberately — it may remain visible on the finished material.
Leave space around the layout for crop marks and check that your printer does not clip them. Keep numbers and important content a few millimeters away from the planned cutting line, rather than just the item boundary. Agree on the exact allowance with your print shop.
Crop marks do not create bleed. If artwork must reach the edge of the finished ticket, prepare the background and cutting method according to your print shop's requirements; enabling marks alone does not extend the background.
Cutting sheets — stacked numbers
Choose “Stacked numbers” when you plan to cut stacked sheets together and then join the resulting stacks. Consecutive numbers appear at the same position on successive sheets. After cutting, each stack contains one sequence of numbers.
Example: numbers 1–12, 2 columns × 2 rows, 3 sheets. “Coordinate origin”: “Top-left corner”. Letters A–D identify item positions; the application does not print them.
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1. Print and stack the sheets
Sheet 1 · on top - 1
- 4
- 7
- 10
Sheet 2 · in the middle - 2
- 5
- 8
- 11
Sheet 3 · at the bottom - 3
- 6
- 9
- 12
Preserve sheet order after printing: sheet 1 should be on top, followed by sheets 2 and 3. Before printing, check that reverse-order printing is not enabled in your PDF reader, such as Adobe Acrobat.
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2. Cut the entire batch into four stacks
Each stack comes from one position on the sheet. The numbers below are listed from the top of the stack to the bottom.
A · top left
- 1
- 2
- 3
B · top right
- 4
- 5
- 6
C · bottom left
- 7
- 8
- 9
D · bottom right
- 10
- 11
- 12
-
3. Join the stacks in the order A → B → C → D
Place the entire stack A (1–3) on stack B (4–6), with stack C (7–9) underneath and D (10–12) at the bottom. Preserve the order within each stack; do not turn it over.
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4. Finished tickets: from the top of the stack to the bottom
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
- 11
- 12
Check this order on a small batch before cutting the full print run. With a different sheet count, the numbers on the first page will differ — use your own PDF rather than copying the example numbers.
Cutting sheets — sequential numbers
In “Sequential numbers” mode, consecutive numbers appear on successive items on one sheet, then on the next sheet. You can cut sheets separately and collect the items in sequence, preserving page order.
The same example: numbers 1–12, 2 columns × 2 rows, “Top-left corner”. Read each sheet from left to right, top to bottom.
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
- 11
- 12
After cutting the three sheets together, the stack from the top-left position will contain 1, 5, 9; the others: 2, 6, 10; 3, 7, 11; and 4, 8, 12. Simply joining these stacks will not produce the sequence 1–12. Sort them or collect tickets separately from each sheet.
Choose the mode in “Number arrangement”. Go to the “Numbering mode” topic.
What should I watch out for?
- Incorrect scale → disable fit-to-paper scaling, print at 100% scale, and measure a test item.
- Margins too small → move numbers away from the actual cutting line and check that the marks fit within the printable area. For “Trimming”, allow for the extra 2 mm on each side.
- Wrong mode → choose “Stacked numbers” to cut a batch of sheets together into stacks. With “Sequential numbers”, plan how to collect or sort individual items.
- Mixed-up or reversed stacks → check page order before cutting, label stack positions, and check the number at the top and bottom of each stack.
- Printing the full run without a test → first check one printout and cut a short test batch. Make sure the result gives the expected number order.
- More numbers than ordered → the application rounds the print run up to full sheets and also numbers the extra items. If the number count is not a multiple of the number of items per sheet, check the final range in the PDF and set aside the surplus copies.